Wine Scores

Below is a listing of the wine review scores we frequently reference in our notes. While these sources remain an excellent source of information, we always recommend that you trust your own palate. Scores in these publications often represent the personal taste of an individual critic, which may not always coincide with your own. We have a huge team of excellent wine professionals that can match wines you've had in the past with new arrivals that meet your flavor profile.

K&L Email Alerts

Staff Favorites -
Steve Greer

I think I started down the path into the wine world with my first job, at 16, bussing tables in a Chinese restaurant. Blue Nun Riesling was the big seller (this in 1985, so don't laugh). While the Blue Nun Riesling was not an "epiphany" wine, I drank a lot of it. It was a magnum of Robert Sinskey Claret that I shared with friends while watching the 1994 World Cup that got me started reading about wine (Brazil won). My first "wow" wine was that same year, when a customer gave me a glass of 1982 Haut Brion. It was amazing. Next I found pinot noir, specifically a 1994 Whitcraft Bien Nacido, and I was hooked. I knew I wanted to sell wine so I moved from restaurants to wholesale wine sales, working for Metamora in Ohio and Kentucky. But after continued consolidation of distributors and the realization, that in wholesale you wear blinders, tasting only the wines you sell, I knew I wanted to move to the retail side. I would like to say I moved from Cincinnati just for K&L but I left the "Red" state for Los Angeles (a Cincinnati Reds and Cincinnati Bengals fan in San Francisco just would not do) and I was very lucky to find the K&L store in Hollywood. The rest is history.

Reviews

This is a perfect New Year's Eve Rose. On the nose bright cherry and strawberry aromas that carry through on the palate. The bright fresh red fruit flavors are surrounded by a more refined mouth feel. The price makes it affordable for a party.

This could be one of the best deals in our Champagne section. If you like Billecart then you will like this as a alternative in price. Nice strawberry and cherry flavors and aromas with a nice rich texture and a long finish of strawberry. Great value and a great Champagne.

Bright raspberry and a touch herbal on the nose. The ’07 Langoa’s palate is polished with spice, herb, raspberry and cassis flavors. The wine has a soft polished finish with lots of raspberry aromas. This is a solid wine!

What a beautiful Champagne. The elegant texture with great depth of flavor is what stood out for me. Loads of nuts and fruits (apricots) all wrapped by a great mouthfeel and a toasty finish. This has become my favorite under $30 Champagne.

Pomerol seems to be the big winner of the 2006 vintage, and this wine is a good example with rich heady nose of ripe fruit and mocha. Nice fruit and spice and chocolate with good structure. What I liked most about this wine was how the structure of the wine balanced all the rich fruit on the palate. The aromas continue throughout the long finish.

Coufran is north of St-Estèphe, where heavier soils are wellsuited to merlot. The château is planted with 85% merlot and 15% cabernet sauvignon.With a bit of
decanting this wine really opened up and with each sip I enjoyed it even more. Very dark in color, the
nose provides both rich fruit and some oak. It opens with a mix of rich cassis and nice acidity, but its
tannins are still astringent. Give this beauty some time to age.

You have probably never heard of this chateau, but the estate's wines date back to 1868 and there are records of the land belonging to the family (La Begorce) dating back to 1332. The estate was split up after the French Revolution and then reunited by Hebert Perrodo. Apparently his dream was to purchase all three parcels, but he was tragically killed in a skiing accident in 2006. His family has continued the project and the wines themselves seem steeped in this long history. They're “old school” in style and show their best when consumed with a meal.
The 1999 displayed aromas of sweet black fruit, which also comes through on the palate filling it with an almost liqueur-like sweetness with a background of spice and lots and lots of acidity.